A cartographer and slang expert have created an expert guide to navigating the
slang of London's tribes

Struggling to get down with the kids? Don't understand the English being spoken on the streets of your own city? Help is at hand.A map showing London slang and the tribes who use it has been created, with areas including 'Toffs', 'Nosh', 'Techies' and 'Hipsters'.

The map, which is called 'Argotopolis, or the Old Oak', rhyming slang for The Big Smoke, covers the northern part of London from West Hampstead in the north, to Bethnal Green in the east, Chelsea in the west and down to Tower Hill and Embankment by the river.

'Argot' comes from French and means a slang or a secret language, so 'Argotopolis' means 'City of Slang'.

The words incorporate elements of cockney rhyming slang, standard English, yiddish, tech jargon and youth slang. They include old-fashioned words that have fallen out of wide usage and technical words used in certain workplaces and social groups.

'Techies' congregate around the Old Street roundabout in East London, rubbing shoulders with 'Nobs and Gentry' in the Guildhall and 'Hipsters' in Shoreditch (Photo: TAG Fine Arts)

East London is shared between 'Techies' and 'Hipsters' and the more established 'Fur-men' of the City of London and 'God Box' priests around St Paul's.

The area around St Pauls and the City includes slang for priests and religion (Photo: TAG Fine Arts)

A section called 'Nappy Valley' covers Notting Hill, 'Nosh' is in Covent Garden Market, and 'Toffs' covers Buckingham Palace and the Royals.

The West London branch of the map showing the Kings Road, Mall and Buckingham Palace (Photo: TAG Fine Arts)

The words on the map date from the early 16th century to the present day, and come from sources as wide as Shakespeare, dictionaries, the Sloane Ranger handbook and Made in Chelsea.

Some of the earliest words on the map come from the first ever glossary of slang, published in 1532.

Across the bottom of the tree are eleven 'heroes of slang', the earliest of whom is Abbot Aelfric, who translated Latin words into English in 1000 and recorded the words 'arse' and 'b*lllocks' (spelt beallucas) for the first time.

Language used by the wealthy young Londoners of Made in Chelsea former part of Mr Green's research (Photo: Neil Hall/REX Shutterstock)

Mr Green says that London is the perfect subject for a map of slang. "The first recorded English language slang was in London, so London is the home of slang. Long before we got to Australia or America, London was this incredible crucible of slang."

Many of the words on the map are a little coarse - but this is the nature of slang, says Mr Green. "Slang is all about parts of the body, and commercial sex, and racism. It's us at our most human. It's not us at our nicest."

And if you object to the language of youth? Mr Green says you have two options. "Learn it, or ignore it."

Art dealers TAG Fine Arts are selling 50 prints of the map, hand-coloured by Adam Dant, and the artist's proof will be displayed at the Hampstead Affordable Art Fair this week.

Here are some of the most interesting terms on the map.

Dunlop tyre

Rhyming slang from the 1960s, meaning a liar. Mr Green says rhyming slang has been around since the 1830s and continues to evolve, with new terms including 'Posh and Becks' meaning sex.

"I think rhyming slang has got the same position as black cabs and telephone boxes," he says. "It's sort of a symbol of London."

Is rhyming slang as iconic an element of London as the black cab? (Photo: Bloomberg)

Ambidexter

Slang for a lawyer, and suggests someone who holds out both hands for bribes. Dates from 1552, and also appears in an 1850 pamphlet entitled "A Manifest Detection of the Most Vyle and Detestable Use of Dice Play."

Smell-smock

Smock is a coarse word for woman or vagina that dates to the early modern period and was used by Shakespeare. Smock Alley was slang for a street occupied by brothels, and a smell-smock came to mean a philandering priest.

Mr Green points out that this falls into the pattern of mocking clergymen in slang. "Clergymen in slang tend to be rather hypocritical - here in the context of sex."

Alderman Lushington

'Lush' originally meant alcohol, later came to mean 'drunkard', and dates from the 17th century. "Lushington is making it sound a bit upper class, and a bit aristocratic, but it means a drunkard," says Mr Green.

"There actually was a society called The City of Lushington which was mainly consisting of actors who met in a bar in Russell Street called the Harp Tavern."

The society had a 'Lord Mayor' and four 'aldermen' - which could be where the term comes from.

Lush originally meant alcohol but has come to mean a drunkard (Photo: AFP)

NSIT

In West London Sloanes and 'Hoorays' are the source of much of the more modern slang (Photo: JANE MINGAY)

Adorbs/Totes/Maybs

These modern contractions cropped up during Mr Green's research watching Made in Chelsea.

He thinks they're part of a more interesting social phenomenon. "It's always assumed that women don't use slang, so the slang they use is male slang, which was true of the 'ladettes' in the nineties, for example.

"What's happening with Facebook in particular is that teenage girls are starting to take over and create their own slang."